I spoke to Shannon Sharpe Tuesday afternoon, fresh on the heels of Peyton Manning’s 32-of-37 night against the Raiders. The former Broncos’ tight end — who played with John Elway for much of his career — said he thinks Manning will go down as one of the top five quarterbacks of all time when he retires.

When asked whether he’s at all surprised by what Manning has done for the Broncos after everything the quarterback went through, Sharpe was resolute.

You may have seen the note in Tuesday’s paper about the Broncos’ offense being tied for the second-most points ever in the first three games of a season, with 127. (Only the 1968 Cowboys, with 132 points in their first three games, have had more.) Here’s a closer look at this crazy-good offense and just how much better it is than the rest of the NFL:

We understand players and coaches need a “cooling off” period before meeting the press (except for on-field interviews with TV networks that pay for broadcast rights).

But this is ridiculous — or remarkable, depending on your point of view. After Peyton Manning dissected the Oakland Raiders for a 37-21 victory Monday night, the Broncos quarterback waited more than 40 minutes before holding his press conference. Why?

In an interesting story in the San Jose Mercury News, Steve Corkran discusses the Raiders’ pass rush — perhaps their most celebrated accomplishment thus far in 2013 — and why it may not have the same effect against Peyton Manning and the Broncos.

Corkran describes the Raiders’ pass rush success as being a result of “their penchant for blitzing any player, in any situation, from a variety of angles,” an approach that might not work so well against Manning, who is tough to fool with the blitz and often succeeds in spite of it.Read more…

Peyton Manning looks to the Denver bench in disbelief after running back Montee Ball fumbled at the 3-yard-line against the Giants. More photos. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

It happened on the Broncos’ disappointing first drive of Sunday’s game, which ended in a Montee Ball fumble in the end zone, and Manning joined the company of just Brett Favre and Dan Marino when he reached 60,000 yards. It’s hardly shabby company, and the Broncos’ QB was the fastest of the three to reach the landmark.

At the end of the first half of Sunday’s game, Manning had 60,149 yards on his career. Sunday marks the second game of his 16th season (226 starts).

The gist: Welker is really good at catching short passes, and Manning is really good at throwing them, and the two being paired up also helps their teammates on the offense. (It’s more nuanced than that, I swear. But read it yourself.)

Peyton Manning throwing one of his seven TDs against the Ravens. (Dustin Bradford, Getty Images)

The NFL informed the Broncos Wednesday morning that quarterback Peyton Manning was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week for his 462-yard, 7-TD effort in last Thursday’s 49-27 defeat of the Ravens.

In the game, Manning completed 27 passes for a 64.3 completion percentage, and his 462 yards tied him for third most of any Broncos quarterback in a single game. No quarterback has thrown more than seven touchdowns in a game, and the last to reach seven was Minnesota’s Joe Knapp in 1969.

Wednesday marks the 24th time Manning has won a conference offensive player of the week nod, which passes Tom Brady for most all-time. Brady has 23, Dan Marino 18, Drew Brees and Brett Favre 16 and John Elway 15.

In a story that posted Wednesday morning on ESPN.com, Giants quarterback Eli Manning details to Ed Werder the trying experience that was Peyton Manning’s recovery from neck fusion surgery, which caused him to be cut by the Colts and question his future:

“I knew it would get better with time,” Eli Manning told ESPN. “But after several surgeries and you’re dealing with nerves — you didn’t know how quickly (he would recover). That was the scary thing for him — he didn’t know how quickly it would get better.”

Eli Manning recalled throwing with his older brother following the 2011 season, when Peyton missed the entire season and was released by the Indianapolis Colts. The youngest Manning said his older brother struggled to generate any velocity on his passes, a source of concern for both quarterbacks.

“It just wasn’t the same … it was frustrating and scary for him,” Eli Manning said. “He would look at me and say, ‘What looks wrong? Why is it coming out without any pop?'”

In a story on nj.com posted earlier Tuesday, writer Peggy McGlone breaks down the skyrocketing ticket prices for Sunday’s Broncos-Giants game at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The high demand, of course, is due to the matchup between brothers Peyton and Eli Manning, which marks the third such Manning-against-Manning contest. (Peyton Manning’s team has won the first two.)

The visiting quarterback whose image was hanging both on Sports Authority Field at Mile High and at various spots on the 16th Street Mall this week reacted with aplomb and calm to the Ravens’ 49-27 loss to the Broncos Thursday night.

“We’ve all been through it before,” Joe Flacco said. “When you play in the NFL for a while, you’re going to be through these types of games. No matter how good you are or how good you think you are, it’s going to happen to you. . . We’ve played games like this and we’ve gotten beaten like this. So I don’t think we will over-react to this. I think John (Harbaugh) is an experienced coach, we’ve got enough guys on the team who are experienced with this kind of thing … that we’ll know how to handle it.”

In the Broncos preview section Thursday, which will focus on Denver’s current wide receiver threesome, my story is on another set of receivers from the franchise past — Vance Johnson, Mark Jackson and Ricky Nattiel.

All three were small and fast, so as a trio, they were quite unlike Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker, especially. But with John Elway keeping plays alive and throwing them the ball, they managed to be effective … and were showmen as they did it.

The above is Johnson and Jackson appearing with the Bronco caravan in Longmont last year.

I had fun doing the story, and even in going through the microfilm to read about their breakout game — the 1987 victory over the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football in which Johnson, Jackson and Nattiel each caught a TD pass from Elway.

South side of Sports Authority Field at Mile High. R.J. Sangosti, Denver Post

I just drove past Sports Authority Field at Mile High on my way to Dove Valley, and the banners still were there. I say that because I wondered if rambunctious University of Colorado or Colorado State University students might become, um, “primed” enough to try and discover means to go after them Sunday. (Yes, I mean the CSU or CU students from Colorado … and I believe there are a few of them.)

Musing as we await the beginning of practice:

** I wasn’t red-faced outraged by the banners of Joe Flacco being a part of the league buildup for the game. For me, though, the point is that it was just a stupid move by the league. I’m more disdainful than I am angry, in other words. It needs to do this in Denver to promote this game? It was as if the league thought this was Oregon vs. LSU in a Kickoff Classic at a neutral site, such as Jerry Jones’ Arlington stadium. And it didn’t know what the reaction would be? You could make the argument that the league knew it would generate extra buzz and publicity, but I’m more convinced that the marketing geniuses didn’t have the sense to understand its league well enough to know that would happen.

In the second half against Arizona Thursday night, Denver quarterback Zac Dysert was 9-for-20, for 163 yards and one touchdown, a 25-yarder to Gerell Robinson. No, those aren’t eye-popping numbers, but the seventh-round draft choice from Miami of Ohio showed poise and leadership among the scrubs and continued to make a case for trying to keep him around, and maybe even on the 53-man roster rather than hoping to get him through waivers and to the practice squad. He finished the exhibition season 12-23, for 179 yards, after throwing the other three passes in the opener at San Francisco.

“I just wanted to go out there and make the most out of the opportunity I was given tonight, try to make plays,” he said. “I wanted to make it tougher on them and put myself in a better position.”

Zac Dystert during OTAs Denver Post file

I asked him if he caught himself handicapping the odds of either making the 53-man team or getting through waivers and going to the practice squad.

“A little bit,” he said. “It’s kind of hard not to think about it. God has a plan for me and it’s going to work out either way. Hopefully, I can stay in Denver. This is my number one choice. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out and you just have to make most of the opportunity I’m given.” Read more…

My latest effort from the Broncos coverage bullpen — four-seam fastball, change-up and slider — will be a story about Brock Osweiler in the morning. He’s going to start and play much of the fourth exhibition game Thursday against the Arizona Cardinals, and we talked about that and the progress he felt he has made since joining the Broncos as a second-round draft choice last season. (UPDATE: Here’s the story link.)

Brock Osweiler has a clear view of preseason game No. 1, and it is through a completely different lens than he peered through at this time last year. His ability to decipher defenses is up, and because of that the game has slowed down.

One year under the belt is making all the difference for the Broncos backup quarterback. Now, Osweiler is most interested in knowing that his heightened knowledge base can translate from the practice field into live games. He’ll get his first chance on Thursday in the Broncos first preseason game of the season, at San Francisco. Osweiler stands to get a significant number of reps in the contest.

The Denver Broncos signed seventh-round draft pick and third-string quarterback Zac Dysert to a four-year contract Monday that included a $48,200 signing bonus.

Now Dysert goes to work on making the 53-man roster.

“I was talking to my agent (Mike McCartney, son of Hall of Fame college coach Bill McCartney) before the draft and this was our No. 1 pick,” said Dysert, who played four years at the Miami (Ohio) University.

Nicki Jhabvala is a Broncos beat writer for The Denver Post. She was previously the digital news editor for sports. Before arriving in Denver, she spent five years at Sports Illustrated working primarily as its online NBA editor. She also spent two years as a home page editor at the New York Times.